Call Kurtis: My Alarm Company Double Charged Me

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Agnes Nilsen says her alarm company double charged her bank account for seven months, but she said it would only refund part of the money.

It was time to Call Kurtis.

She signed up for monthly auto pay through her bank account.

But she now thinks they shared her financial information, leading her to get double billed each month.

“Why, do this to your customer?” she told Call Kurtis.

Baffled for months, Nilsen said she saw money mysteriously disappearing from her bank account.

It took months before Nilsen realized it was her alarm company Guardian’s parent company double charging her.

And even after she caught it, she said the monthly charges continued..and her bank said it couldn’t do anything about it because she authorized auto-pay.

“I mean how do you stop an automatic payment?” she said.

Parent company EXL Security finally agreed to fix it, but would only refund her for five out of the seven months, keeping about 90 bucks Nilsen thinks she’s owed.

“I’m just really mad at them,” she said.

We’ve learned the BBB has received five complaints about this company which recently moved from sacramento to phoenix.

“The fact that those charges are unauthorized is a problem, for that company,” said Gary Almond of the BBB.

He said consumers who pay automatically through their bank accounts have almost no protection … But the company still has to treat its customers fairly.

“Oh she’s due her money back,” she said.

“If i hadn’t caught it, they would have kept doing it for who knows how long?” she said.

When we reached out to EXL Security, the company vaguely blamed the double charge confusion on an aquisition.

It agreed to reimburse Nilsen saying, “We are just unfortunately very behind,” although Nilsen wants something more.

“Thank you very much, but I think I need an apology too,” she said.

More companies are offering specials and discounts if you enroll in auto-pay. The important thing to remember — if you give them permission to access your bank account info, they have that information forever.

Also important to remember: Some alarm contracts say they can transfer your bank routing numbers to a new company if they’re sold to someone else.